Jamal Mashburn, Kentucky (1990-93)

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In preparation for Saturday's Louisville vs. Kentucky showdown in Lexington, a matchup of the last two teams to win a national title, Sporting News looked back at the 10 best players of Rick Pitino's college coaching career. (We did the same for John Calipari.) This list measures not the strength of each player's entire basketball playing career, but the impact that each player made in college basketball. Enjoy the trip down memory lane.

As much as it was necessary to have “Unforgettables” for teammates, Mashburn was the foundation on which Pitino built the Kentucky revival. He was a phenomenal college player capable of functioning—and excelling—at all three frontcourt positions. His talent made possible Kentucky’s program-changing run to the 1992 Elite Eight; he scored 30 points in the Sweet 16 game against John Calipari’s Massachusetts squad and 28 in the legendary East Region final against Duke. His disqualification late in overtime surely did not help the Wildcats as they attempted to defend the decisive shot. As a junior, Mashburn became a first-team All-American and led the Cats to the first of three Final Fours under Pitino.

Because he wasn’t physically imposing—only 6-1, 189 pounds, far smaller than a typical shooting guard—it’s easy to underestimate how essential his perimeter shooting was to the 1996 NCAA title drive. He was a consensus first-team All-America, the Final Four Most Outstanding Player and SEC player of the year, and yet somehow because he didn’t deliver a defining performance or make a single huge play in his final NCAA Tournament his greatness is misplaced. And yet he scored 25 against Wake Forest, 20 against UMass and 24 against Syracuse in the Wildcats’ final three NCAA games that year. He was a small one, but a beast.

Coaching Walker was something of a carnival for Pitino. Some of the finest scouts considered Walker far too much of a me-first player while in high school, and Pitino had very little time to coach it out of him. And yet he did, and Walker made All-SEC in his sophomore (and final) season. Though Delk was the scoring force for the great 1996 Kentucky championship team, it was Walker’s variety of talents that truly lifted that gifted group. Point guard Anthony Epps was a solid, defense-first leader, so Walker took on the burden of creating much of the team’s offense. Not that he minded. Walker never was so comfortable as when the ball was in his hands.

With an NCAA championship ring already in his possession, Mercer was part of college basketball’s best 1-2 punch through the first half of the 1996-97 season. Together with Derek Anderson, Mercer was helping to position the Wildcats to become one of the NCAA’s rare repeat champions. Then, Anderson was gone. He injured his knee and was lost for the year, leaving Mercer to carry on. With lots of help from a hungry group of Wildcats who’d been less influential in the title season, notably forward Scott Padgett, Mercer scored in double figures in every NCAA Tournament game and was named the region MVP as UK reached the second of three consecutive Final Fours.

Pitino specializes in both finding and developing multi-skilled players. He emphasizes the need to catch, pass and shoot—and if you can handle the basketball, like a Garcia or Antoine Walker, you could star for him. Garcia made 71 3-pointers and passed for 148 assists in his final season, which ended with the Cardinals in the 2005 Final Four. He collected 148 rebounds and 65 steals. In short, he contributed to the Cardinals’ success in just about every way a player could—including serving as a captain and using his positive energy to keep teammates motivated and playing together.

In an era of Big East Conference basketball when teams were loaded with talent (Derrick Coleman, Reggie Williams, two different varieties of Charles Smith) Donovan almost escaped notice until he shot the surprising Friars into the 1987 Final Four. Donovan had been mostly an end-of-bench reserve his first two seasons, scoring only 157 total points. When Pitino took over for Donovan’s junior year, he unleashed an unlikely star. Donovan shot 51 percent from the floor and averaged 15.1 points that first year. He scored 88 percent of his 1,328 career points in those final two seasons.

There can be no greater evidence of Pitino’s gifts for developing talent than Smith, a 2-star recruit who blossomed into an All-American and national champion. He was essentially a non-factor as a freshman, and as a sophomore was a reckless-but-dynamic sub whose “Russdiculous” nickname was meant to capture both his spectacular plays and his spectacularly puzzling decisions. In his junior season, though, Smith dominated with his ability to attack from the perimeter and his ability to disrupt opponents as a press defender. In his senior season, he has functioned more as a playmaker and produced a healthy 5 assists per game.

Gaines had a nice start to his college career under Hall of Famer Denny Crum—there can’t be many who’ve played for two different Hall of Famers as collegians—but those two seasons of experience combined with the arrival of Pitino resulted in two spectacular seasons for Gaines. He scored 1,247 points in two years playing for Pitino, which is a great career in itself. Functioning as a scoring point, Gaines helped the Cardinals back to postseason play after a year’s absence and to the NCAA Tournament his senior season and was named third-team All-America by the AP.

Pitino talked often about how Siva ranked as his favorite player to coach—ever—because of his relentlessly positive attitude and commitment to hard work. Siva spent lots of time improving as a jump shooter but always was a natural leader and playmaker. He directed Louisville to two Final Fours and one NCAA title. He compiled 677 career assists, second in school history, and twice was named most valuable player at the Big East Tournament. Only other guy to do that: Patrick Ewing.

Immortalized at UK as one of the “Unforgettables”—the core of players who stayed with Kentucky when it was slammed by NCAA sanctions, Pelphrey was the most consistent of them on the floor. He was a do-it-all forward who was great at nothing but good at everything and willing to contribute in any direction that was needed. He was named first-team All-SEC as a junior and to the SEC All-Tournament team in his final year. He averaged 19 points in the four games of the Wildcats’ 1992 Elite Eight run.